migrants

Syrian migrants passing through Slovenia on their way to Germany last year.

The German Interior Ministry reports that the number of migrants seeking asylum in Germany from the ravages of violence, corrupt and brutal dictatorships and poverty in the Muslim world fell sharply in 2016’s first half.

About 16,000 people registered as asylum seekers in Germany in June, way down from 92,000 in January, but the migrant crisis is expected to continue.

Officials cited border closings in the Balkans, a European Union-Turkey deal to try to block arrivals by sea from Islamic nations in Greece and tougher asylum rules in Germany were among the main reasons.

Germany took in more than a million migrants in 2015, mainly people fleeing Islamic terrorism and other conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan and the endemic poverty — much of it related to corrupt and brutal regimes and relentless Islamic violence.